Wow, it has been a year…
So here I am again. Does anyone of y’all have info for me about the planes we talked about above?
I might even install XP11 on my Notebook until my PC is up and running again.
Also @BeachAV8R 's thread made me curious for a Do228 and I noticed that Carenado has one for XP11. Does anyone here have experience with it?
Yes, it’s probably Carenado’s best aircraft yet for X-Plane, Really fun to fly as well. Very detailed inside and out. Has an alternate configuration for the RXP GTN 750 if you own that. Two enthusiastic 
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Yeah - I’m probably going to pick it up on the next Carenado sale. I’m not sure if it (the Do228) was on sale over the holiday…if so, shame on me for missing it. I know a lot of their modules were discounted, but can’t remember if the Do228 was one of them.
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How is the FPS on Do228? I don’t normally have any problems but would use it in VR when they add mouse support.
There is a really nice J-3 on X-Plane.org today (Jan 3). I am a pull for power guy so can’t be further help. 
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It seems to be about like the B1900 or any of the other Carenado steam gauge aircraft.
I see that my link above wasn’t helpfull. AND it was a PA-18, not a J-3.
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Still useful.
Lol the opening post of this thread is almost three years old now and I finally got around to buying the Challenger 300. 
Anyway. The rest of the spots is still vacant so I’ll see what I will do there. Not right now though, I have a plane to learn.
But if you have suggestions, please go ahead anyway.
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Last night I played around with the Challenger, trying to learn how the autopilot works.
I admit that in the past I haven’t really used autopilot systems the way they are meant to be used. I flew almost everything manually and just used altitude hold or heading hold, basically what you can do in most fighter jets.
But now I want to learn it properly, with all the stuff those autopilots can do.
Also: Holy crap I kinda forgot how fast Mach 0.8 is (and how small Europe is. And how far you can see from above 30,000 feet)
I took off from EDSB, climbed, and then used the autopilot to try and make the plane do various things. I didn’t really look where I was flying.
…and 50 minutes later, when I had tried everything and looked out of the window again, I had flown over some mountains and the clouds were gone. I looked down and saw an interesting coast line that vaguely looked familiar. Some big islands (Cres and Krk, Croatia). And a weird looking city at the coast… that turned out to be Venice.
My track looks funny, I flew right over Innsbruck at FL400 and toward Croatia.
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Ok, there is a little problem with the Challenger.
With TrackIR enabled I suddenly get some weirdness with the views.
I solved the issue by using the X-camera plugin and deactivating X-Plane’s native TrackIR support.
I tried the AviTab plugin and I have to say it is really cool. Although it costs a bit of FPS.
I also installed the terrain radar plugin. Since the Challenger uses the standard avionics it is compatible.
Playing around with the autopilot I think I have it mostly figured out.
What I am still missing is one element of the flight planning: I am not sure where to read about the fuel flow so I can plan how much fuel I need.
Also: I don’t really understand the FMC yet, but I’d like to know: does the free plugin X-FMC add anything significant?
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Following.
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About the fuel topic:
There is a guy over at the X-plane forums who is a real life Challenger 300 pilot and was aso a beta tester for the virtual one that I bought. Here are his statements about fuel:
For fuel planning, use 2,400 lbs for the first hour and 1,800 lbs for each hour after that. Also, 2,500 lbs is a good reserve, but you can go down to 2,000 if the weather is good (you may need more if it’s not good). So for a planned 2.5 hour flight, you would load 2,500 (reserve) + 2,400 + 1,800 + 900 = 7,600 lbs. I hope that helps! (and isn’t too complicated). Also, that assumes Mach .80. If you want fly faster, you will use a bit (not a lot) more.
What you see above is conservative. The trip will usually use less fuel than that calculation gives. For short flights with good weather, it is close enough (and good for x-plane I think). When we do our real trip planning, the computer flight planning software (VERY expensive) very accurately accounts for winds, temperatures, and our exact route and gives a very accurate number. We are often asked for a fuel load days ahead of time and I use the calculation above for that. Then, if the weather is bad or the winds are strong, I can always have the ground crew add some more fuel befoe we go. Corporate flight departments are not like the airlines where dispatchers give a fuel load to the pilots who then approve (or add fuel) and then the airplane is fueled. We do all the planning and often, for early morning or weekend flights, the airplane is fueled in advance (we can always add if we need to).
I would also add that although 2,000 to 2,500 lbs is a good reserve, we normally use 3,000 (to be conservative) and regularly land with 3,500 to 4,000 lbs of fuel. The three most useless things in aviation: Altitude above you; Runway behind you; And fuel in the truck.
Someone asked if one could just conservatively say 1 hour = 400nm
I think that’s what I will do.
And holy cow that plane can climb over 6000 ft/min in good conditions! 
Also:
The Challenger 300 can climb directly to FL410 after a takeoff at MGTOW (38,850). As long as the temperature is not too high, it can climb directly to FL430.
That’s some power right there. He also confirms that thrust is so high that - like I noticed in the sim - you have to pull the throlltes back considerably in order to not overspeed the plane, on pretty much every altitude.
What’s also a tad counter-intuitive on first glance: Unlike with the jets I’ve flown before, in the Challenger 300 you let the APU run until you are way into the flight (several minutes), that way you can use its bleed air instead of pulling it from the engines, and in case of an emergency you already have the APU running.
Source:
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Super cool!
Yep, that Challenger 300 realy looks good. It was on my short list when I considered biz-jet.
Atm I still don’t know what I will use for the Xmas flight
I’m in the same boat. I’m going to fly something other than the VSkyLabs DC3 this time though. I’ll have to make a decision soon, as I need to get started if I am going to reach the finish line before the deadline.
Added the Velocity V-Twin by aerobask to the list. that’s a nice looking plane.
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